The Jade Mage: The Becoming: Volume 1 (43 page)

“Ok, Apprentice. Your turn.”

CHAPTER 17

After two days of practice, Tartum had mastered his new dome spell. Neither Tartum nor Rashlarr was surprised that the sapphire glowed green for him, rather than blue like it had for Rashlarr when he cast the spell. The real difference, that required a short explanation from Calimsha, was the green hue Tartum’s skin took on when the spell was completed. There was no reason for it, and it didn’t cause Tartum any pain or discomfort, but it was a little disconcerting when they first noticed it.

After a little coaxing, Calmisha informed Rashlarr that it was just Tartum’s other half making itself manifest through his magic. It wasn’t harmful, and the spell worked as it was supposed to. Calimsha had warned them not to bother her with trivial questions and not to be surprised when spells worked a little differently for Tartum than they did for anyone else. She did, however, bestow Tartum with a nickname that he was still trying to get used to.

Today, Rashlarr was going to teach him another offensive spell. This one, he had seen Isidor cast as they fled Zerous, which now seemed like a lifetime ago. Tartum couldn’t wait to try his hand at the lightning bolt spell Rashlarr had promised. As they entered the training room, Rashlarr handed him a bundle and began to speak.

“Ok, Jade Mage,” he began, Tartum still wasn’t used to being called that. It made him feel self conscious, but he tolerated it because there was nothing he could do about it. It wasn’t that he disliked the name; truth be told, he was becoming fond of it. He just worried about answering the question of
why
people called him that. He didn’t want anyone to know he was a half-breed. It still didn’t sit well with him. Not knowing who he was ate at him, and the nick name was a constant reminder of that.

Rashlarr continued, “Today I’m going to teach you the lightning bolt spell. This is not for use indoors. If you try to cast it inside, you’ll more than likely kill everyone in the room, including yourself. This is a spell you use outdoors, mainly for assassination missions that require the mark’s death to look like an act of nature or bad luck. Never cast it if it has been raining, either. It travels through the water and electrifies everything that’s wet. Again, probably killing everyone, including yourself!” he finished.

Looking down at the bundle, Tartum began to unwrap it. It was slightly heavy and felt like there were some kind of rods inside. Pulling one of the rods out, Tartum saw his assumption had been correct. It was a six inch long, copper rod. It never ceased to amaze him how diverse and strange components were for the spells he was learning. Sulfur, copper, sapphire, rose petals, barley. He was curious how man ever learned that these strange materials, when combined with magic, could produce such amazing results. He decided to pose his question too his masters.

“Rashlarr, before we begin I have a question.” Tartum said. Rashlarr looked at him for a moment and motioned for Tartum to ask it.

“Who figured out how these spells worked? I mean, who took the first piece of sulfur and said he was going to make it into a fireball, who picked up a sapphire and said he was going to make a protective dome out of it? I don’t get it.” Tartum finished.

Rashlarr looked thoughtful for a moment and then walked over to him. Holding out his hand he spoke a command, “Chair.” Two stone chairs formed up from the floor of the training room. Rashlarr sat down and motioned for Tartum to sit in the one adjacent from him. “That’s a very good question, Apprentice, and the answer is a long one. Have a seat, and I’ll tell you about magic’s origins.” Sitting down, Tartum gave Rashlarr his complete attention.

Without further delay, Rashlarr began; “The Gods taught us how to use magic, Apprentice. The gods taught man thousands of spells. Long ago, when the world was new, and our race was in its infancy. When the world was first created there was a war between the Gods and those that were before them. What those “before the gods” were, there is no record, but we know the gods won and the aftermath of the battle bathed our world with magic. From that magic the first mortal life forms were created. This was not planned and therefore intrigued the gods, bringing their attention back to our broken world. The first races of mortals; dragons, demons, and merfolk, each had dominion over the three realms of our world. Dragons ruled the air, demons the earth, and merfolk the water. They lived in peace and for the most part, had very little contact with each other. There was no reason for the races to intermingle, since they each lived, almost exclusively, within their chosen realm. The gods watched the three races from places of secrecy for years. It was addictive to them, and favorites were chosen. Eventually, the gods had grown so curious, they each took the form of one of their favored race and lived amongst them. Some in secret and some out in the open. They taught the original races how to build, how to speak, write, and grow crops. They showed them many, many arts that have been lost over the ages but sometimes we get a glimpse of the lost arts through a lucky discovery or exploration of ancient ruins. After the original races had mastered all the gods had taught them, they grew bored inside their realms and sought out the other races. It did not go well. So long had they kept to themselves, that when faced with a race that didn’t do things the way they expected, well...according to what few records are left, the first few contacts ended poorly. Sometimes it was just words, sometimes it grew violent. None of the scholars know which race struck first, but the resulting fallout all but wiped out the merfolk race. They are said to have been the weakest of the races and most vunerable to changes in their environment. Historians speculate that the first attack had something to do with poisoning the water, and the resulting deaths rippled through to the merfolk’s main cities deep under the seas and oceans. Whatever the case was, the civilizations of the merfolk were destroyed almost overnight. The gods that lived amongst the merfolk had come to love them, and seeing their extermination angered them greatly. Few things are as terrifying as a god’s wrath, and they intervened with a vengeance.This is known as the Gods War, and the world suffered for it. The merfolk gods tried to exterminate the dragon and demon races as retribution, but the gods who were loyal to those races intervened. The resulting conflict between the gods saw every last one of them vanish from our realm. In essence, the war only lasted an hour to mortal perceptions, but the gods don’t experience time like we do. To them, it was generations. The orginal races were confused when their friends and leaders returned, just as suddenly as they had vanished, looking as battle worn as they were. Some of them were hideously disfigured or had limbs missing without any explanation. Some didn’t return at all. None of the gods would explain in any detail, so no one knows who won the Gods War, but when they returned they were all angry and jaded. It is assumed that the remaining gods were afraid their brethren would strike at the mortal races to exact some cruel revenge. The gods were weakened from their war against each other and decided to teach the mortal races how to wield magic in order to protect themselves from the violent attentions of hostile gods who were loyal to the other races. So it was that magic was taught to the mortal races, and they took to it with gusto! The demon and dragon races took to offensive magic quickly and liked nothing more than to practice their new powers on each other. This, of course, lead to another series of world changing wars. The resulting battles between the races reshaped entire continents. They pulverized lush forests and created massive mountain ranges. Their magical prowess evaporated seas and flooded deserts. It’s said that entire islands were erased from existence, and large portions of the sky burned for years with magical fury. The wars lasted for three hundred years, before the gods intervened again. Seeing their prized races dwindling down to a fraction of their original populations, the gods tried to reason with their leaders. The demons and dragons hated each other far too fiercely to be swayed by Gods they no longer looked up to. By this point, the dragons and demons believed they were equals with the Gods and gave their warnings not a second thought. The merfolk race had used their magic to create incredible impenetrable barriers, that not even the gods could pass through. The merfolk were lost to the voids at the bottom of the oceans and seas. They may still be there to this day; no one knows for sure. The gods gave up on trying to contact the merfolk and focused their attention on stopping the demons and dragons. It was during these futile negotiations that a few of the gods realized that the only way to save the races was if one of them was destroyed. The god known as Degrassie, who was loyal to the demon race, decided it was up to him to intervene in order to save what life was left on the planet. Degrassie wasn’t a cruel god and didn’t want to kill off the dragon race in order to preserve his favored demons. Instead, he developed a spell that would change the dragon race from a highly intelligent, sophisticated people into a dumber, simpler, animal race. His reasoning was that once the dragons weren’t a threat, the gods could convince the demons to stop fighting them and focus on peace once again.” Rashlarr took a drink from his water skin, Tartum didn’t realize he was going to get a history lesson from his masters, but he was spellbound. He had never learned about the history of his world and found this all incredibly fascinating.

Rashlarr finished his drink, had an internal moment with Calimsha, nodded to himself and continued, “Degrassie was a God with good intentions, but his spell was more effective than he had intended. Overnight, the entire dragon race lost their intelligence. These once wise creatures were reduced to savage, confused animals. They tore each other to pieces. Clutches of dragons that, the day before, had been friends or family, were now fighting amongst themselves, competing for alpha male status or the best mates. Their instincts took complete control in the absence of intelligence, and the carnage they wrought upon themselves was worse than all the wars combined. In less than a month, the dragon’s population went from millions to hundreds. The charred and mangled bodies of these poor, cheated creatures littered the ground all over the world. The last remaining members of the race staked out territories for themselves and made their lairs deep inside the earth. For reasons unknown, they quietly began to hoard treasure and precious stones; only leaving their lairs to eat, mate, or increase their horde every couple hundred years. The backlash Degrassie received from the gods who were loyal to the dragons almost caused a second Gods War. The gods from both races decided that instead of fighting amongst themselves, they would banish Degrassie to the mortal world. He would live in the travesty of his poor judgment for all eternity. His every waking moment on this world would remind him of his misguided deeds. The gods could think of no better hell to inflict upon him, and the effect it had on him was what they had intended.” Rashlarr took another drink from his water skin, and for a few minutes he and Calimsha seemed to be debating something. The delay drove Tartum crazy; he wanted to hear the rest of the story!

With a sigh, Rashlarr continued, “Degrassie was mad with grief over what he had done and made the mistake of confessing his crimes to the demon race he was exiled to live amongst. The demons, although they had fought many wars against the dragons and did want to dominate them, never meant to exterminate them or make them into mindless beasts like Degrassie had done. The demons used their magic in conjunction with the gods still loyal to them to try and reverse Degrassie’s spell. Unfortunately, they never figured out how to undo his spell, and Degrassie was too lost to grief and self-loathing to be of much help. Frustrated and defeated, the gods that were helping the demons abandoned them and left this realm. The demons did not take to the gods abandoning them well, and they took their frustrations out on Degrassie. For sixty days, they used the collective magic of their race to hold Degrassie and torture him. Every able bodied demon that had any skill with magic lent their power to his suffering. After sixty days of torture was at its zenith, the most powerful demon of the race stepped forward. Before the war he had been mated to a dragon and history holds that his mate was still alive and was a victim of Degrassie’s spell. The arch demon was known as Yomin, and he was strongly against the wars. He worked hand in hand with the gods who had been loyal to the demons, as well as the dragons, in order to try to stop the fighting. His magic had been responsible for single handedly stopping many major battles before they could start, which both endeared and estranged him from both races. He had been in seclusion with his wife, a Dragon named Nora. She was a large red dragon that used her magic to change her form into that of a demon so she could be with Yomin. She had been pregnant with their first child and had just finished laying the egg, when Degrassie had cast his spell. Yomin had defended the egg that held his child from Nora when she had attacked him, and it was only through his ability with magic, that he was able to cause Nora to retreat from their home in the mountains. Yomin, was devastated by the loss of his wife and crippled by what he saw befall the dragon race. His heart and soul weren’t truly crushed until his son hatched. The hatchling came out of his egg and, upon seeing Yomin’s demon form, cried out and attacked. Stricken with grief over the events that befell the world and the mental state of his child, Yomin killed his hatchling son and cursed the gods for meddling in his world’s affairs. He had not been heard from since he had gone into seclusion and when he appeared in front of Degrassie’s tortured form, there were cheers of joy and celebration as the onlookers thought their most powerful caster was rejoining them. Only the few demons near him saw the rage and hate on his face, only the ones that were close could tell he was casting a spell, something powerful and terrifying. The few records left of that moment state that there were no words spoken, no gestures, no movement at all from Yomin; just a warping of the air around him, and Degrassie let onlookers know that something was happening. It was over almost as fast as it began and suddenly Degrassie vanished. There was no flash of light, no sound, no explosion. He was simply there one moment and gone the next. Degrassie had been erased from existence. Yomin had killed a god.” Rashlarr stopped here and seemed pained by something. Taking a long drink from his water skin, he nodded to himself a few times and continued.